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Thompson
City
City of Thompson
Highland Tower, chosen for the Spirit Way wolf mural, is the most prominent building on Thompson's skyline
Nickname(s): "Hub of the North" or "Hub City, "The Centennial City", "Nickel City"[1][2][3]
Thompson Location in Manitoba
Coordinates: 55°44′36″N 97°51′19″W / 55.74333°N 97.85528°W / 55.74333; -97.85528Coordinates: 55°44′36″N 97°51′19″W / 55.74333°N 97.85528°W / 55.74333; -97.85528
Country	Canada
Province	Manitoba
Region	Northern Region
Census division	22
Established	1957
Incorporated	1967 Town
	1970 City
Government
• City Mayor	Colleen Smook
• Governing Body	Thompson City Council
• MLA (Thompson)	Kelly Bindle (PC)
• MP (Churchill)	Niki Ashton (NDP)
Area
• Total	20.79 km2 (8.03 sq mi)
Elevation[4]	224.03 m (735.01 ft)
Population (2016 Census)
• Total	13,678 (5th)
• Density	657.91/km2 (1,704.0/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	Thompsonite
Time zone	UTC−6 (CST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−5 (CDT)
Forward sortation area	R8N
Area code(s)	204
Highways	PTH 6
Website	www.thompson.ca

Thompson (population 13,678) is the largest city in the Northern Region of Manitoba. Originally founded in 1957 as a mining town, Thompson now serves as the "Hub of the North", providing goods and services to the surrounding communities.

Thompson is situated along the Burntwood River, 739km (459 miles) north of Winnipeg; Thompson is directly connected to Winnipeg via paved highway, railroad (VIA Rail), and the Thompson Airport.

Being located in the heart of Canada's boreal forest and in a sparsely populated area makes Thompson an ideal community for outdoor enthusiasts: the largest marina in Manitoba is located 30 minutes south of Thompson (in Paint Lake Provincial Park), hundreds of kilometers of snowmobile trails are maintained by the Thompson Trailbreakers, and the lack of light pollution and Thompson's northern latitude allow for regular viewing of the Northern Lights (even within the city limits).

History

The Thompson area was first inhabited by nomadic Paleo-Indian hunters around 6000 BC, sometime after the collapse of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Europeans conducted a federal geological survey in Thompson in 1896.

The modern history of Thompson began in 1956 when on February 4, a major ore body was discovered; the community was founded in 1957 following an agreement with the Government of Manitoba and Inco Limited, becoming the site of the first integrated nickel mining-smelting-refining plant in the Western Hemisphere. Thompson was named after Inco's chairman at the time, John F. Thompson.^[5]

Thompson was incorporated as a town in 1967 on Canada's Centennial Anniversary, and in 1970 as a city in the royal presence of Queen Elizabeth II, having reached a population of 20,000; the population has been estimated as high as 26,000 residents prior to the recession in the 1970s.^[6]

Thompson's reliance on the nickel industry has decreased substantially since its inception; employment in the nickel industry has fallen from over 4000 (in the late 1970s) to around 850 in 2018.^[7][8]

Thompson now provides retail, educational, healthcare, and other goods and services to most of the surrounding communities, earning Thompson the nickname, "The Hub of the North".

Economy

Overview

The economy of Thompson is centered around nickel mining and providing goods and services to the surrounding communities in both Census Division No. 22 (in which Thompson is located) and Census Division No. 23; these two Census Divisions have a combined population of 51,136, which includes over 38,000 First Nations people.^[9]

As is common in resource-based communities, Thompson has experienced above-average employment income and significant swings in mining-sector employment throughout its history.

The median employment income in 2015 for full-year full-time workers in Thompson was $65,262; this was 22% higher than the Canadian median of $53,431.^[9]

Thompson's unemployment rate in 2016 was 7.6%, slightly below the Canadian average of 7.7%.^[9]

As of the 2016 Census, Thompson had 7065 employed persons, with the five largest sectors of the economy being:^[10]

• mining (1255 employees)


• health care and social assistance (1100 employees)


• accommodation and food services (710 employees)


• educational services (710 employees)


• retail trade (670 employees)

Between the 2016 Census and 2018, approximately 400 job losses have occurred in the mining industry.^[8]

Mining

View of Thompson's mining operations. The (now decommissioned) smelter and refinery is visible in the middle of the image.

Thompson's most prominent local industry is the mining and milling of nickel; founded on a particularly rich deposit of nickel, Thompson once accounted for over 9% of the world's finished nickel production. Thompson's nickel production has fallen from a peak of over 45,000 metric tonnes of nickel per year in the 1960s to 23,000 metric tonnes in 2017, now accounting for around 1% of the world's finished nickel production.^[11][12][13]

Vale Limited is the owner and operator of Thompson's mining operations, which ships a concentrated nickel slurry for further processing to Vale Limited's operations in Long Harbour and Sudbury.

Despite Vale Limited's recent closure of their nearby Birchtree Mine, Thompson may be particularly well positioned for future growth in nickel mining industry: Vale recently invested over $100 million in the concentrate load out facility and Vale's North Atlantic mining operations director recently stated that, "If you were to look across the world for an area that had nickel that could be invested in on a standalone nickel basis, there isn’t a better place [than Thompson]".^[14]

Health Care and Social Assistance

The Northern Regional Health Authority (Eastern Campus) provides health care services to most of the communities in Census Division No. 22 and Census Division No. 23; Thompson-based facilities include the Thompson General Hospital, Northern Spirit Manor (personal care home), the Thompson Clinic, and Hope North (centre for youth in crisis).

Additions Foundation of Manitoba also has a facility located in Thompson.

Accommodation and Food Services

Thompson is home to several major hotel chains, including Best Western, Days Inn, Quality Inn, as well as several provincial and local hotels.

There are over a dozen restaurants in Thompson, including a Boston Pizza, Pizza Hut, KFC, McDonalds.

A Noorduyn Norseman attached to a display stand. Bush planes provide short-haul transport to the many lakes in the region.

Educational Services

The School District of Mystery Lake, based in Thompson, provides K-12 education through six primary schools and one secondary school.

The University College of the North and the University of Manitoba's "Northern Social Work Program" provides post-secondary education centered around nursing, social work, and the trades.

The Northern Manitoba Sector Council provides essential skills and employment skills training to Northern Manitobans.

The Frontier School Division, the largest school division in Canada by geographical area, has an Area Office in Thompson.

Retail Trade

Thompson's retail trade is centered mostly in several malls, such as:

• 
  City Centre Mall, which includes a Wal-Mart, Safeway, TD Canada, and Tim Hortons.


• 
  Burntwood Plaza, which includes Shoppers Drug Mart and RBC Financial.


• Plaza Shopping Centre, which includes a Canadian Tire and Family Foods.


• Westwood Mall, which includes a Giant Tiger.

Other

Transportation

The city is served by Thompson Airport, which is the 3rd busiest airport in Manitoba.

First Nations Organizations

Thompson has several advocacy, non-profit, and administrative organizations focused around First Nations people, including Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Inc. (MKO), Awasis Agency of Northern Manitoba, Keewatin Tribal Council, and Ma-Mow-We-Tak Friendship Centre.

Cold weather testing

MDS Aerotest currently operates a cold weather testing centre just south of Thompson, as part of a joint venture between Pratt & Whitney Canada and Rolls-Royce.

Attractions

Several Spirit Way wolves, downtown Thompson

Attractions Within Thompson

Spirit Way

Spirit Way is a 2km (1.25 mi) walking and biking pathway with 16 points of interest that highlight Thompson's art, heritage, culture, industry, geology, and scenery; the pathway includes the largest photo-real mural in Canada and dozens of painted wolf statues.

Heritage North Museum

The Heritage North Museum offers the opportunity to see animals native to the area, a boreal forest diorama, First Nation and fur trade artifacts (including an authentic caribou hide tipi), fossils and mining artifacts at this Manitoba Star Attraction museum consisting of two log structures and an open-air blacksmith shop, Institutional Archives, and visitor information booth.

Millennium Trail

The Millennium Trail is a 15 km hike and bike loop around the city. The crushed rock trail is open year round to non-motorized travel. Walking, hiking and mountain biking are popular in the summer while walking and cross country skiing are winter favourites. With sections winding through pristine boreal forest and making use of some of our city's sidewalks and walking paths, the Millennium Trail shows off the best Thompson has to offer.

King Miner

The King Miner statue was erected to honour the men and women who work in the mining industry. For a Google Maps location of the statue, click here.

Attractions Outside Of Thompson

View of Grass River while hiking the Pisew Falls to Kwasitchewan Falls Trail

Paint Lake Provincial Park

Located 32 km (20 mi) south of Thompson on Highway 6 is Paint Lake Provincial Park, which spans over 23,000 hectares (56,000 acres) of Precambrian boreal forest.^[15]

Parks Manitoba offers dozens of campsites for rent, while Paint Lake Lodge runs the largest marina in Manitoba and offers cabin, boat, and canoe rentals, a restaurant, and a convenience store.

Some features of the park include boat launches, beaches, playgrounds, a volleyball court, baseball diamond and fitness trail. In the winter there are groomed snowmobile trails, ice skating, toboggan runs, ice fishing and ice fishing derbies.^[16]

Pisew Falls Provincial Park

Located 74 km (46 mi) south of Thompson is Pisew Falls Provincial Park. There is a 0.5 km (0.31 mi) trail that leads to a viewing platform for taking pictures of the 13-metre-high (43 ft), year-round falls. There is also a suspension bridge that spans the lower falls. This is the starting point of the 22 km (14 mi) Pisew Falls to Kwasitchewan Falls trail that leads to the highest waterfall in Manitoba. This trail is a difficult back-country trail, recommended for experienced hikers only.^[17]

Sasagiu Rapids Provincial Park

Located 79 km (49 mi) south of Thompson on Highway 6 is the site of scenic rapids and Sasagiu Rapids Lodge, which provides off road rentals (e.g., Skidoo, Seadoo), camper/site rentals, dining, and suites/rooms.

Mystery Mountain Winter Park

Located 23 km (14 mi) north of Thompson off of Provincial Road 280, Mystery Mountain Winter Park offers downhill skiing, snowboarding, and cross-country skiing trails.

Geography

Thompson covers an area of 20.79 square kilometers (8.03 square miles).

The city is surrounded by boreal forest and bordered on the west and north by the Burntwood River.

Climate

Thompson is marked by a subarctic climate (Köppen Dfc). Monthly means range from −23.9 °C (−11.0 °F) in January to 16.2 °C (61.2 °F) in July, and the annual mean is −2.9 °C (26.8 °F).^[4] A majority of the annual precipitation of 509 millimetres (20.0 in) falls from June to September.^[4] Snow falls mainly from October to May, with generally small accumulation in June and September, totaling 187 centimetres (74 in) per year.^[4]

Demographics

According to the 2016 Census,^[9] the population of Thompson is 13,678. The population fell substantially between 1971 and 1981, from a high of 19,001 to 14,288 (a 24.8% decrease). Since then, Thompson's population has fluctuated between 13,000 and 15,000 people. Most recently, Thompson's populated increased from 13,123 in 2011 to 13,678 in 2016 (a 4.2% increase).

Ethnicity

In 2016, Europeans made up a plurality of the population (43.9%), followed closely by Aboriginals (43.5%), comprised of First Nations (32.2%) and Metis (10.8%); the remainder of the population is made up of visible minorities (12.5%), with the largest two visible minorities being South Asian (7.5%) and Black (2.1%).

In 2016, Thompson has the highest percentage of its population as Aboriginal (43.5%) out of all 152 cities (census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations) in Canada.^[18]

Language

The most common mother tongues are English (81.3%), followed by Cree (5.2%), Punjabi (2.6%), and Gujarati (2.0%).

Other

The median age in Thompson is 30.8 years old, significantly below Canada's median age of 41.0.

For Thompson residents ages 25 to 34, 17.5% have not obtained a high-school diploma or equivalent, compared to 8.7% for Canada.

Education

The School District of Mystery Lake operates six Elementary Schools (Deerwood School, Burntwood School, Westwood School, École Riverside School, Juniper School, Wapanohk Community School) and one High School (R. D. Parker Collegiate); both École Riverside School and R.D. Parker Collegiate celebrated their 50th anniversaries in September 2012.

The district offers a K–12 French immersion program. Grades K–8 at École Riverside School, and grades 9-12 at RD Parker Collegiate. The district also offers a K-8 language education program in the Cree language. The Cree immersion program begins at Wapanohk Community School. Students can continue the French program at the high school if they completed K–8 at Riverside, and there are basic Cree courses in grades 9–12 offered as well. R.D. Parker Collegiate also offers grade 10 and 11 courses in Native Studies and a grade 12 Native Law course. Full Cree-medium education does not, however, extend to the high school yet.

Since September 2009, the Franco-Manitoban School Division (DSFM) has expanded within Manitoba to include one K-8 elementary school in Thompson, École Communautaire La Voie du Nord. Located on Weir Road near the site of the Norplex Pool Recreation Centre, the district allows children to receive instruction in French with peers in a Francophone culture.^[20]

Thompson is home to one of the two main campuses of the University College of the North, as well as the University of Manitoba's Faculty of Social Work branch in the region.

Sports

Thompson is home to the Norman Northstars hockey team. Thompson's minor hockey teams are known as the King Miners.

Jennifer Saunders, the current Canadian Women's Racquetball Champion, was born and grew up in Thompson, graduating from R.D. Parker Collegiate in 1994.

The high school teams are called the RD Parker Collegiate Trojans. The Trojans' rivals are the Hapnot Kopper Kings from Flin Flon and the MBCI Spartans from The Pas.

Every year in April, students from the six elementary schools in grades 3-8 compete in the Knights of Columbus Track Meet. Juniper School dominated KoC in the 1990s, and Westwood School has had a winning streak during the 2000s (decade).

Thompson has a large 6-sheet curling rink called the Burntwood Curling Club. The BCC has hosted several zone and provincial competitions.

Thompson also is the birthplace of two NHL players, Curtis Leschyshyn and Jody Shelley.

Law and Government

City Hall

City Council

The City of Thompson is led by a Mayor, a Deputy Mayor, and seven councillors. These are currently:

• Mayor - Colleen Smook


• Deputy Mayor - Kathy Valentino


• City Councillors - Penny Byer, Blake Ellis, Judy Kolada, Ron Matechuk, Duncan Wong, Colleen Smook, Dennis Foley

Circuit Court

Thompson is unique in being the judicial centre for a huge geographic area - ranging from Norway House in the South to Churchill in the North. The Thompson Judicial district covers 15 circuits and offers both Judicial Justice of the Peace Court as well as Provincial Court sittings. Judges, Judicial Justices of the Peace, Clerks, Crown Attorneys and defence lawyers based in Thompson and Winnipeg regularly travel by small plane on circuit court to various remote communities and First Nation Communities to hold Provincial court.

Thompson's status as Canada's most violent city as well as a high rate of property related offences and public nuisances such as drinking in public keep the local courts very busy.^[21] In its annual report The Provincial Court of Manitoba noted that "The Thompson Centre of the court and its circuit court points are regularly faced with large caseloads and it is growing more and more difficult to process these cases in a timely manner. Added to that is the ongoing challenge of attracting and retaining people to work in the justice system in Northern Manitoba."^[22]

Media

Newspaper

The local newspaper, the Thompson Citizen, is published on Wednesdays. A free newspaper produced by the same company, the Nickel Belt News, is distributed on Fridays to a wider area than the Citizen, encompassing other communities such as Churchill, Snow Lake, Norway House, Nelson House, Cross Lake, Lynn Lake, and Split Lake. Recently, the Citizen has also become a free publication.

References in music

• The city was used in the Tragically Hip song "Thompson Girl". The song is both set in, and around Thompson, Manitoba, and is about the title character, a girl who married one of the band members.


• "Thompson" is a song by Les Surveillantes, found on their album titled La racine carrée du coeur.

Radio

• 
  AM 610: CHTM (adult contemporary)


• 
  FM 102.9: CHTM (adult contemporary)


• 
  FM 96.3: CINC-FM (NCI)


• FM 99.9: CKSB-5 (Première Chaîne; repeats CKSB Winnipeg)


• FM 100.9: CBWK (CBC Radio One)

Television

• Channel 9: CKYT-TV, CTV (analogue repeater of CKY-DT Winnipeg)
  

Shaw Communications is the local cable television provider serving Thompson, and operates the local Shaw TV channel on cable channel 11.

References

External links

• City of Thompson


• Shaw TV Thompson


• Map of Thompson at Statcan